My Haircut
by ashwhisker
Summary: A true story based on my experiences last year. Have fun!


Maddy had just finished her almost-three-hour hair routine. She loved her waist-length, thick curly hair. It looked great curly or straight, it was perfectly shiny, and it was a deep chocolate brown color. Styling it in different ways was always something she enjoyed, so it looked different almost every day. The problem was, even for a simple style like a side ponytail, her hair took up so much time. She was so sick of how much time her hair took every day. Between the showering, blowdrying, conditioning, straightening, split-ending, brushing, and styling, she spent hours on her hair every day. Not to mention the money spent on hair supplies, and how annoying it was when it was hot out. For years she had been just putting up with it because she loved her long hair so much. Cutting it had never even occurred to her, even though it caused her so much trouble. Especially now that she was on the soccer team, where she discovered in tryouts that every other move she made was trying to get her ponytail out of her face. She was just putting the finishing touches on a messy bun when she slipped and the whole thing unraveled. Reaching for her heavy-duty jumbo hairbrush, she began to brush out the bun but stopped. At that moment, staring at herself in the mirror, a thought had come into her head: "Why do I bother?"  
She put down her hairbrush, and went into the living room. "Mom?" she said, "can we go get my hair cut sometime before school starts?" Her mom replied "Sure! I'll go call your salon." Maddy was excited at the thought of herself with short hair. After setting up the appointment for the next day, Maddy's mom told her what the lady at the salon had said. "Apparently, they've got this new system. You type your name and what you want into a computer, you get a receipt with a number, and then they call your number when they're ready. It saves time because you can just sit right down and they start cutting, no small talk or decisions necessary."  
The next day, at 3:30, Maddy had just finished taking a couple hundred pictures of her playing with her hair, her hair in different styles, and her hair from different angles. As she unloaded them onto her computer into a folder titled "Before", a chill of nervousness and reluctance came over her. She had been playing with her hair for over 2 hours, and it had been fun. She was reminded my she still kept her hair long despite the work she had to put into it. But she had made up her mind, and she was determined to go through with it. Just as she was giving her hair one last brush, her mom came in and asked if she was ready. Despite her fear, she was happy for the change and looked forward to the simplicity of short hair, so she replied "yes" and they went out to the car.  
When they arrived at the salon, Maddy and her mom went inside. Maddy found the computer, and typed in her name, pausing a bit as she got to "Desired haircut:". She hadn't really thought about what exactly she wanted, which she thought was stupid of herself. She decided to give the stylist a little bit of freedom and typed in "As short as possible so that I can still put it in a ponytail for sports". Staring at it, she was a little worried at the lack of specificity, but since she had no other ideas and knew nothing about short hair she pressed the "OK" button. Her mom payed, took the receipt, and left for a doctor's appointment as a stylist took her back to have her hair washed. Loving the feeling of the warm water and the massaging hands, she was amazed at how heavy her hair felt when it was wet. "Funny how I never really noticed before", she remarked to herself. She then went and sat in the waiting area, enjoying watching the comings and goings of the salon and the people having their hair cut. The woman gesturing wildly while explaining to the stylist what she wanted; the girl walking out with her mom holding a cut ponytail; the teenager nervously twitching as she waited to see how her style would turn out; the boy who got up from the seat across from her to go to the bathroom. Maddy thought she recognized him from school, trying to recall his name. "Mason? Mark? Matthew?" Matthew sounded right to her.  
"44?" A pleasant voice startled her from her thoughts. A young woman in a smock with a tag bearing the name "Erin" had walked up to the waiting area, waiting for client number 44. Maddy startled, and realized her mom had taken the receipt with her number. No one else got up, so she assumed it was her and stood up. "Matty?" the stylist asked? Maddy was relieved. She stood up, and told the stylist that she was number 44. They walked over to the chair, and Erin, the stylist, made small talk as she combed out Maddy's hair. "You're really brave to get your hair cut like this," said the stylist. Maddy replied, "Thanks. I've never had it nearly this short before." "It'll be much easier playing sports with short hair," the stylist said. "Do you want me to cut a ponytail so you can donate it to Locks of Love?" Maddy, who didn't realized her hair was that long, was surprised but said, "Sure!"  
As Erin began combing, Maddy could feel her heart racing. She decided to close her eyes for the haircut so that she could try to relax a little, and get a nice surprise at the end. Erin continued combing, and Maddy could feel her pull her hair up into a ponytail. She then heard a snip-snip as the stylist picked up a pair of sharp scissors, and then felt her ponytail pulled taut. Resisting the urge to sneak a peak, she sat back and breathed deeply. She enjoyed having her hair played with, and began to feel a little drowsy. Relaxed, and drifting off to sleep, she could hear the snip-crunch of the scissors slicing through her ponytail. The crunching sounds became faster and shorter until she heard the scissors clack together and felt a weight lift from her head. Her head felt so light, and it felt amazing to her to not be burdened by so much hair. She could feel the stylist combing her hair out again, as she drifted farther into sleep. The atmosphere was so relaxing. Then a pause, and she heard the click of an electric razor turning on and then the buzzing of its blades. Her half-asleep self thought "Wow, I never realized how loud those things are! Even though it's somewhere across the room I can hear it like it's nearby!" she thought, because she knew it couldn't be that close to her. Then, in a shock, she felt the cold edge of the razor against her forehead and the vibrations as it moved down her head. She was instantly awake and flew her eyes open in shock, yelling "what are you doing?" On the counter, she could see the almost-four-foot-long ponytail that had been shorn right up against her scalp. She looked in the mirror and saw a girl with a very short bob, and one stripe of hair down the middle of her head that was about half an inch long. The stylist looked alarmed, and grabbed the slip from the computer off the counter. "This is what you wanted, right? 'Matty, number 44, something short like a buzzcut for sports'!" Maddy grabbed the slip of paper and moaned. "No! My name's Maddy! With 'D's, not 'T's! This must have been the guy I saw, he went to the bathroom so he didn't hear you call! I wanted something around shoulder length!" She could feel tears welling up in her eyes that got worse the more she looked in the mirror. The stylist seemed close to tears as well, saying "I'm so sorry! But all I can do at this point is finish the haircut. I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"  
Maddy couldn't bear to look in the mirror as the stylist finished shaving her head. She felt the razor buzzing against her scalp and cutting off all of her beautiful hair. Chunks of hair and tears fell into her lap. The stylist somberly finished the haircut, and told Maddy she was done. She looked up into the mirror, and saw with dismay what she knew she already knew she would see. She had half an inch of hair on the top of her head, and less than that on the sides and back. She looked just like a lot of the athletic boys in her school. The stylist assured Maddy that she would not have to pay for this haircut, and apologized repeatedly as Maddy walked out the door, running her hands sadly over her shaven head.

* * *

Next summer:

After a year of torment, teasing, and growing out her hair, Maddy had gotten it to a length she was comfortable with. It was around shoulder length, about the length she wanted to have it cut to in the first place. However, since it had grown out, it had become very thick and unruly. It was almost as hard to manage as it had been at waist length, and having gotten used to very short hair, even shoulder-length was bothersome to her. She decided to go and have her hair trimmed, getting a sense of deja-vu as she typed her name into the computer. One of the stylists took her back to her chair, and said "'Maddy, number 72, a trim with layers', right?" Maddy hesitated, and some impulse led to her blurting out, "No, I changed my mind. I want something short, like a buzz cut. Half an inch on the top, and about a quarter inch on the sides." The stylist, in surprise, asked her if she was sure, and she was. This time she reveled in the wonderful sensation of the razor against her head, watching in delight as the chunks of hair fell from her head. She knew that she was going to keep cutting her hair this way forever.


End file.
